High-value datasets – greenhouse gas emissions in the EU
Publication Date/Time
2023-07-13T07:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
Find emissions data to support the green transition
This is part of a series of articles showcasing examples of high-value
datasets from their different thematic categories. High-value datasets
are defined by EU law based on their potential to provide essential
benefits to society, the environment and the economy. This series aims
to help readers find reliable and accurate information from official
sources relating to the availability of various high-value datasets,
and to present this information through data visualisation. You can
check out the article providing an overview of high-value datasets
here
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/high-value-datasets-overview-through-visualisation]. 

Only datasets specifically defined by law can be considered high-value
datasets, and as such the data presented in the articles does not
necessarily fall under that definition. Instead, the data has been
chosen to be thematically adjacent to high-value datasets and to
showcase what can be done with information made available by official
EU bodies and EU Member States. The official list of high-value
datasets adopted on 12 December 2022 can be found in the legal
documents
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=PI_COM:C(2022)9562]
that define them and their characteristics. 

 

EMISSIONS DATA IN THE HIGH-VALUE DATASETS 

Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. To
understand the progress towards a carbon-neutral society, high-quality
data is paramount. This is one of the reasons why key metrics to track
this effort were included in the list of high-value datasets as part
of the ‘Earth observation and environment’ category. 

Among them, there is data about greenhouse gas emissions. When
released into the atmosphere, greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun,
creating a natural ‘greenhouse effect’ that keeps our planet warm
and habitable. However, human activities, particularly the burning of
fossil fuels and deforestation, have significantly increased the
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This increased
concentration intensifies the greenhouse effect, causing the Earth’s
temperature to rise. 

There are various ways to track greenhouse gas emissions. As noted in
the complete list
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=PI_COM:C(2022)9562]
of high-value datasets, the legal acts laying down the key variables
for the emission indicators are Articles 24, 32, 55 and 72 of
Directive 2010/75/EU
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32010L0075],
Article 21 of Directive 2012/18/EU
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32012L0018]
and Article 10 of Council Directive 91/676/EEC
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31991L0676]. 

As is the case for most other datasets in this list, emissions
high-value datasets must be available for reuse under the conditions
of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, or any
equivalent or less restrictive licence, in a publicly documented
machine-readable format and through application programming interfaces
and bulk download. The aim is to make them as accessible and easy to
use as possible.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/8.emissions7-01.png]
The ‘Statistics explained’ page
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=SDG_13_-_Climate_action]
on the Eurostat website provides a good starting point for any
research concerning climate change data. It describes key trends,
targets and the best indicators to use for tracking progress towards
the sustainable development goals [https://sdgs.un.org/goals] in the
EU context. 

One such indicator, and among the most important to consider, is the
metric that measures the abovementioned greenhouse gas emissions. The
net greenhouse gas emissions indicator
[https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sdg_13_10/default/table?lang=en]
tracks both emissions and carbon removal, which counterbalances
emissions. In short, carbon removal refers to the process of
extracting CO2 from the atmosphere or reducing its concentration. It
involves various techniques such as planting trees and restoring
forests to absorb and store CO2 through photosynthesis, among other
techniques
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/high-value-datasets-land-use-eu].
By removing CO2 from the atmosphere, carbon removal aims to restore
the balance of carbon cycles, stabilise global temperatures and
mitigate the adverse effects of excess greenhouse gases on the
environment and human well-being. 

As for the net greenhouse gas emissions metric, under the European
Green Deal
[https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en]
initiative, the European Commission proposed in September 2020 to
raise the target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
[https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2030-climate-energy-framework_en].
The new target is to decrease emissions by at least 55 % compared to
the levels in 1990. Long term, the EU aspires to achieve climate
neutrality by 2050
[https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2050-long-term-strategy_en],
which entails establishing an economy where there is balance between
greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions taken
out of the atmosphere (resulting in no net greenhouse gas emissions).
This goal lies at the core of the European Green Deal and aligns with
the EU’s dedication to international climate initiatives outlined in
the Paris Agreement
[https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement]. 

Data on net greenhouse gas emissions is compiled at the EU aggregate
level and for all Member States by the European Environment Agency
(EEA) and republished by Eurostat. It has several breakdowns
available, which makes it possible to study per capita emissions and
in each Member State. Going as far back as 1990, the following
visualisation shows the ongoing effort in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/8.emissions7-02.png]
Another important factor to note is the effect of the COVID-19
pandemic, which strongly reduced human activity in 2020 and led to a
drop in emissions. In 2021, with the acute phase of the pandemic
gradually concluding, greenhouse gas emissions tended to reverse
back. 

The following visualisation looks at levels of greenhouse gas
emissions in tonnes per capita from 1990 to 2021. In this measure,
over the years, on average all EU-27 Member States experienced a
decline in their emissions. It ranged from – 4 % and – 6 %
for Finland and Cyprus, to – 65 % and – 77 % for Romania
and Sweden, respectively, as compared to 1990. In contrast to this
average EU trend, the carbon intensity of Latvia’s economic output
increased by 37 %, which can partially be explained by significantly
lower initial levels.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/8.emissions7-03.png]
At the same time, the per capita emissions within Member States
exhibit significant variation owing to their unique geographical,
economic and energy-related circumstances. For instance, although
Latvia experienced a rise in its per capita emissions, reaching
7.1 tonnes per resident, it still remains lower than the EU-27
average of 7.4 tonnes as of 2021. In contrast, countries such as
Luxembourg have managed to halve their per capita emissions since
1990, but starting from a higher initial level, their emission levels
currently stand at 16.7 tonnes per inhabitant.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/8.emissions7-04.png]
 

EMISSIONS DATA FROM DATA.EUROPA.EU 

The data.europa.eu portal makes available many datasets useful for
analysing greenhouse gas emissions in more detail
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets?query=net%20AND%20greenhouse&locale=en]
also on a national level. The Dutch government data portal, for
example, uploaded a dataset concerning emissions in the Netherlands by
economic sector
[http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/15657-emissies-broeikasgassen-ipcc-klimaatsector-kwartaal?locale=en],
showing which parts of the economy are the most carbon intensive. The
data is very detailed, showing the contribution of private households
together with other parts of the economy and specific economic sectors
with a significant impact, such as manufacturing (especially of coke,
petroleum and chemicals), electricity and gas supply or air
transport. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/8.emissions7-05.png]
Several datasets on the portal allow for a regional coverage of
emissions. One example is a dataset made available by the Belgian
Federal Planning Bureau
[http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/2bb19f2412d6bf76c60bb1969a6e5949ef46d8b7?locale=en],
showing per capita net greenhouse gas emissions since 2000 in the
three regions of the country. 

The following visualisation shows the trend in emissions in those
regions. The original dataset, however, also includes other useful
information such as the 2030 objectives, a comparison with the EU-27
levels and a longer time series going as far back as 1990. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/8.emissions7-06.png]
Another useful feature of the datasets available on the data.europa.eu
portal is that they can offer a very detailed level of geographic
coverage. That is the case for a dataset uploaded by authorities in
Vienna
[http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/d99a5b1f-837b-456a-9b8b-14b4535c9517?locale=en],
tracking greenhouse gas emissions in the area, and others such as the
dataset concerning Umeå
[http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/https-opendata-umea-se-api-v2-catalog-datasets-vaxthusgasutslapp_umea~~1?locale=en],
a city in the north east of Sweden. 

Going back to 1990 and up to 2019, as shown in the following
visualisation, the data about the Austrian capital is also
disaggregated by sectors showing emissions for agriculture, buildings,
energy supply, fluorinated gases, industry, transport and waste
management. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/8.emissions7-07.png]
 

OTHER EU GREENHOUSE GAS DATA PROVIDERS 

The EEA is the EU agency responsible for providing reliable and
independent information on the environment. It collects and
validates data from reliable sources to analyse trends and produce
policy-relevant analyses on environment and climate topics. The
EEA’s ‘Indicators’ page [https://www.eea.europa.eu/ims] offers
several indicators about climate change adaptation and mitigation,
while underlying datasets can be downloaded from the datahub
[https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/datahub?size=n_10_n&filters%5B0%5D%5Bfield%5D=issued.date&filters%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=any&filters%5B0%5D%5Bvalues%5D%5B0%5D=All%20time]
or the EEA catalogue
[https://data.europa.eu/data/catalogues/eea?locale=en] on
data.europa.eu. 

The EU’s Joint Research Centre has conducted several research
projects
[https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/search?query=greenhouse+OR+climate&sort=relevance]
about the environment and climate change. Among them, there are
different examples of studies focused on greenhouse gas emissions,
such as this one focused on predictors for cities’ emissions
[https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC129875]. 

On the Directorate-General for Climate Action’s website
[https://climate.ec.europa.eu/index_en], it is also possible to find
documents, reports and data about policy action concerning climate
change in all its aspects: the European Green Deal
[https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/european-green-deal_en],
transport emissions
[https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/transport-emissions_en], along
with carbon capture, use and storage
[https://climate.ec.europa.eu/eu-action/carbon-capture-use-and-storage_en]
as a way to offset emissions.

 

Download the data visualisations presented in this article
[https://gitlab.com/dataeuropa/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Data%20stories/HVD%20Data%20Stories/Greenhouse-gas-emissions/GHG-data-visualisations-png.zip]
and the data behind them
[https://gitlab.com/dataeuropa/data-provider-repository/-/blob/master/Data%20stories/HVD%20Data%20Stories/Greenhouse-gas-emissions/Data-GHG-data-story-13-07-2023.xlsx].

 

_Article by Davide Mancino_

_Data visualisations by Federica Fragapane_
